Goals by Maarten Martens (19), Shota Arveladze (22), substitute Moussa Dembele (68) and Danny Koevermans (86) secured a comfortable 4-0 away win for AZ, who piled more misery on the home side following their 2-1 win in the KNVB Cup last week.

Ajax failed to make up ground on runaway leaders PSV Eindhoven after Lasse Nilsson`s first-half goal handed Heerenveen a narrow 1-0 win at the Amsterdam ArenA.

Feyenoord required a late equaliser from Pierre van Hooijdonk to salvage a 1-1 draw at home to Roda JC.

The visitors, knocked out of the Dutch Cup on Wednesday by RKC Waalwijk, looked to have improved their chances of clinching a European play-off place when they took a 57th-minute lead through Sekou Cisse.

But Van Hooijdonk had other ideas and secured a share of the spoils for Erwin Koeman`s side with a powerful header six minutes from time.

Heracles Almelo ended their 18-game winless run with a 3-1 victory over rock-bottom ADO Den Haag.

A Rob Maas penalty after 36 minutes set the hosts on their way to a first league win since November 17, although veteran Michael Mols did equalise for the visitors midway through the second period.

However, Heracles managed to step their performance up a notch in the closing stages and eventually Igor Gluscevic (77) and Karim Bridji (83) scored the goals that ensured the points stayed in Almelo.